The U.S. Olympic Committee is changing its attitude towards two legendary sprinters who raised their gloved fists in a Black Power salute while receiving their medals 51 years ago.

Tommie Smith had come in first with a new world record. His teammate, Harlem-born John Carlos, had taken third. When it came time to collect their medals, they took off their shoes and mounted the podium in their socks to protest poverty and oppression of black Americans back at home. Then they bowed their heads and raised their arms into the air.

"I was trying do something that would change something for your kids and grandchildren," Carlos said later. "I didn’t go there for the medal. I wanted to do something that was everlasting."

At the time, the International Olympics Committee said the gesture was political, which the Games were not meant to be. The pair were expelled from the games and suspended from the U.S. team. Carlos and Smith paid a heavy price —their athletic careers unraveled, their marriages failed, they received death threats.

On Nov. 1, they were inducted into the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs. Their official citation says they "courageously" stood up for racial equality. ESPN commentator Howard Bryant says it's the closest they'll get to an apology.

"But at the same time I do feel it's significant," he said. "I do feel at some point if you're both of those guys, you feel like an injustice had been done and it's lasted half a century. And so to be acknowledged at all, I think it matters."

The U.S. Olympic Committee didn't return a request for comment. But in an interview with CBS, Tommie Smith, now aged 75, said the committee's is admitting that "Yes, we WERE on the wrong side of history."